Hedging Their Bets
This is interesting:
Frederick Kagan, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, tells U.S. News that, barring major developments, he sees little reason to reduce force levels in Iraq below presurge levels until early 2009.
“I can see no reason to expect that we will be able to evaluate the levels of force appropriate in Iraq until the new president comes into office,” says Kagan, one of the chief architects of the current surge strategy in Iraq.
This would actually accomplish two goals: one, it gives our troops and the Iraqi Security Forces more time to cement the progress the new surge tactics have accomplished and two, in the event a Democrat wins the Oval Office, it would allow the new President to “withdraw troops” from a higher baseline, giving the new administration more flexibility to leave a larger number of troops to better help preserve order and stability (something that will surely be a priority for any serious foreign policy, whatever they say in the heat of a bitterly contested primary) while still providing a significant sop to the left’s antiwar base.
Subscribe to Dean's World by Email
4 comments
Shouldn’t we follow the recommendations of military commanders actually involved in the fight instead of theoriticians from think tanks or pandering politicians?
From your mouth to Barack Obama’s ears.
Interesting. This goes against what Petraeus was saying last month about significant planned reductions from presurge levels by the end of the year. I wonder if the situation has changed, or if this is a divergence of opinion between Petraeus and Kagan.
I’m sure part of the calculation is to look at a worst-case scenario on the home front, since support for the effort against fascism is so weak here; it’s entirely plausible that more troops will be left in Iraq than are actually needed so the new President can start a drawdown without endangering the mission.
Sad that it’s gotta go this way, but oh well. Every day we buy for the Iraqis is lives saved.
You must log in to post a comment.